


Rough Seas

by Keluturtle



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Intended as a oneshot but it may be continued, M/M, merman au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-13 03:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9104914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keluturtle/pseuds/Keluturtle
Summary: An artist at sea is a dangerous thing.





	1. Chapter 1

The sky was painted a dark gray as the waves pattered across the rocky beach.

 

Edd’s boat moved with the slow ebb and flow of the sea. Edd let out a slow yawn, putting down his sketching pencil to rest on the easel’s tray. He was proud of this piece, the view from the sea to the mainland was always a gorgeous sight and with the slight sun peeking from the gray clouds to illuminate the shore, he was sure this would be one of his best pieces yet.

 

If only his eyes would stay stop fluttering closed as he let out more and more tired yawns. Well, he supposed he had stayed out here for quite some time now-- trying to sketch out all the details on the canvas while still fresh in his memory. He moved a hand to rest on an oar, letting out another loud yawn as he blindly reached out for the other oar, slowly beginning to paddle his way back to the shore.

 

As the boat approached the beach, Edd hopped out, nearly tipping over the small dingy as he grabbed the small rope, pulling the boat fully ashore. He quickly tied it to a small post near the cliff face, too far away for the tide to reach. He grabbed his art supplies from the boat, carefully tucking away the canvas in his rucksack, easel under his arm, and headed up the stairs leading to the road.

 

Packing up his things, he gave one last fond look to the sea before driving off back towards his apartment complex.

 

* * *

“You shouldn’t go out there when you’re so tired, dude, it’s not safe.”

 

“Yeah, besides, what about that painting you were going to do of me?”

 

Tom and Matt had come over to visit the next day, as Edd proudly displayed his canvas piece on one of his many home easels. The two were currently relaxing on his couch as he tried to do some tidying up-- never a complete success when you were a notoriously messy artist.

 

Edd rolled his eyes, “I never promised to do any painting of you, Matt.”

 

“You didn’t have to,” Matt replied flippantly, “I knew you were going to without me asking, remember?”

 

Edd squinted, “I don’t think that’s how that works Matt.”

 

“Sure it does. I’m too gorgeous not to capture in paint anyway,” Matt boasted, tucking a lock of ginger hair behind his ear.

 

“Yeahhhh… anyway, Edd. You’re not planning on going out today again, are you?” Tom quickly changed the subject back, peering over the back of the couch to look at Edd suspiciously.

 

“I mean, I was…?”

 

Tom frowned, “You promised that we would go out and have a drink together. We haven’t done anything for your birthday and you keep pushing it back.”

 

“I just don’t feel like celebrating,” Edd shrugged, picking up some loose paper, still making a valiant effort at trying to clean.

 

“Well, your friends want to celebrate for you-- and it wouldn’t really be the same if you didn’t come along with. Would be more sad than anything,” Tom crossed his arms.

 

Edd sighed and sifted through the paper, some with incomplete sketches of various landscapes, some blank, others accidentally having caught some paint splatters from the newspapered floor.

 

“Yeah… alright,” Edd finally conceded as he placed the stack to the side.

 

“Awesome, we’ll celebrate tonight then,” Tom grinned widely.

 

“Tonight? I thought we were celebrating tomorrow?” Edd questioned.

 

“Nah, too long for you to bail out or change your mind,” Tom stretched off the couch and lazily strolled over to Edd, patting his shoulder, “Actually, that’s a good point...We’ll leave in an hour so get ready.”

 

“Hey--” Edd tried to interject, but Tom was already ushering him towards his bedroom and trying to pick out his outfit for him.

 

Edd let out a small smile. Sure, his friends could be overbearing but they meant well. And he supposed he did deserve a small break from working. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually gave himself a day off, even on his birthday.

 

After a half hour of showering and picking out his own outfit-- to which Tom conceded willingly-- they were off towards the bar and drinking the night away.

 

* * *

Edd couldn’t remember having a hangover this bad in ages.

 

Ugh, he shouldn’t have had those triple shots.

 

Pulling the covers over his head he tried to will away the migraine but to no avail. Slowly making his way out of bed and towards the kitchen, he poured a glass of water from the sink, trying to find his stash of ibuprofen.

 

Swallowing the medicine harshly he rested his head on the cold kitchen counter. God, that felt good.

 

Lifting his head from the counter after a few moments he blearily looked over the kitchen bar to his living room, still a mess from yesterday. His eyes caught the trickle of light from the window leading to the canvas piece he was so proud of yesterday. The light caught the graphite just right and he blinked before his eyes widened and he could fully envision the finished piece in his mind.

 

Inspiration.

 

Fuck hangovers, he had to go out and paint. Right now.

 

* * *

 

The only solace he had as he made his way back to the seaside was the gray sky hadn’t cleared from yesterday. There was sure to be rain later from the way the air smelled, the humidity peaking quite severely from yesterday. He had to work quick.

 

Releasing his dingy from the post he pushed it back into the tide, which was a lot more rough than the previous day. Setting up his easel and swinging his rucksack back into the boat he jumped in after it as the tide took him away from the shore.

 

Three hours later the picture was finally starting to take form, and Edd was feeling incredibly sea sick from the combined rocking and the general queasiness of the hangover. He rested his back against the back of the boat, resting his eyes as he fought the urge to empty his stomach overboard.

 

The waves were not helping as they became more intense and Edd wrapped his arms around his stomach, trying to relax. It seemed to help, and his breathing became more steady as the nausea passed and the onset of exhaustion came. In the back of his mind he knew he should be paddling back to shore, but he was asleep before he could attempt reaching a hand out towards his oars.

 

Two more hours passed and Edd remained asleep, wind chilling him but not enough to wake him from his slumber. The waves were becoming violent, tossing the boat around the sea, further from the shore. It wasn’t until a particularly hard crash against the side of the boat did Edd wake up, and by then it was too late. His boat had flipped over and he was tossed into the ocean along with his painting and supplies.

 

His sleep addled brain tried to make sense of what was happening and he tried to gasp for air only to inhale a large amount of sea water.

 

He fought some more, arms flailing as he tried to make an attempt to swim back towards the surface, but felt something pulling him downwards. From a quick downward glance he could see his heavy bag wrapped around one of his ankles and sinking fast with its weight.

 

Shit, shit, shit.

 

He tried desperately for a few more moments to swim towards the surface, but the strap of the bag amidst his flailing had managed to tangle his other leg in it too.

 

As the last of his breath left him and his mind became hazy, a flash of red past his eyes amidst the blackness creeping in and heaviness took over his body.

 

* * *

 

Coughing intensely he felt water being pushed forcefully out his lungs as he took in desperate gasps of air.

 

He sat up sharply, knocking his head violently into something-- hearing a loud swear in return.

 

Shit, someone must have saved him and he just headbutted them.

 

“Sorr--” He broke into a loud coughing fit, eyes squeezed shut as more water was pushed out.

 

“Hey, hey, easy now,” the voice above him rung out. Foreign sounding, even from those few words.

 

He shuddered from the exhaustion and cold and slowly opened his eyes, taking in the form of a shirtless guy with piercing red eyes and as his vision slowly came to him, so did a red mermaid tail attached to the end of him. Ah okay, so he must have died or something. That made sense.

 

“Am I…” Edd began, his voice rough.

 

“You’re alive, yes. I saved you,” The man nodded, proud of himself.

 

“...I was going to ask if this was heaven or hell, actually,” Edd corrected, “But this is obviously a hallucination and I’m still drowning.”

 

The man rolled his eyes with an aggravated noise before grabbing Edd’s face between webbed fingers, pulling him towards him aggressively.

 

“You’re  _ alive _ , idiot. I  _ saved _ you, you’re not drowning or halluci-naughting or whatever word that was-- humans need to stop having such complicated words, I swear-- so a thank you or whatever would be great,” the man sneered, baring his sharp teeth.

 

“Uh…” Edd blinked, “Thank… you?”

 

“Yes, yes, you’re welcome,” he let go of Edd’s face, “Next time you might not be so lucky that I’m around so don’t be an idiot and do whatever it is you were doing when the sea is unhappy.”

 

He backed off and turned back towards the crashing waves, looking ready to leave.

 

“Wait!” Edd called out, grabbing his arm, taking alarm at the way the scaly skin felt.

 

“What?”

 

“Can I… at least know who it is that saved me?”

 

The man looked extremely confused and Edd quickly added on, “Your name, that is-- if… if you have one?”

 

“Oh… uh. My name is… Tord.”

 

“Tord…?”

 

“Tord. Nothing else. Just Tord,” With that he pushed himself off into the sea with incredible strength, tail flicking as he descended quickly back under the water.

 

“...Tord,” Edd repeated to himself, “Tord… thank you.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

The next weeks passed without anything too eventful, much to Edd’s disappointment. While he was still painting near the sea, he had decided to stay off his boat for fear of nearly drowning a second time. Instead he stayed near the edge of the tide, painting the seascape far beyond the shore.

 

And while it was relaxing and peaceful, he never could get motivation to finish any of the paintings. There was just something… missing.

 

Sighing, he packed up his half-painted canvas, easel, and paints. Shifting the bag on his shoulder he gave one last forlorn look to the ocean before heading up the cliffside stairs.

 

The drive home was in silence.

 

* * *

 

He didn’t touch his art supplies for several days after that. He was plagued by the most intense art block he had faced in a long time. Tom and Matt came over a few times to try and cheer him up, taking him out to the local museums he normally loved to peruse. But, nothing seemed to work.

 

“Edd?” There was a knock on the door and Edd simply turned over in bed, trying to ignore it.

 

“Edd, you have to get out of bed and do something. It doesn’t have to be art but you have to get up and move or you’ll never motivate yourself.”

 

Edd huffed and pulled his pillow over his head, trying to block out the noise.

 

His cell phone rang on his bedside table, suddenly.

 

He reached a hand out to look at the caller ID.

 

Matt.

 

He rolled his eyes and hung up the call, turning his phone off afterwards.

 

He just wanted to sleep. What good was doing art if he couldn’t finish anything he started? What good was anything if he couldn’t find the motivation?

 

Eventually the banging knocks on his apartment door stopped and he heard footsteps trail off. He drifted back off to sleep soon after.

 

* * *

 

A couple days later Edd had managed to tear himself away from his apartment in order to go get groceries from the harbor district. He had been craving some seafood for a while and the pains in his stomach persuaded him enough to actually go out.

 

It was another cloudy day and the sea breeze felt nice against his face and hair, he allowed himself to close his eyes to take it in. He had forgotten how much he missed the ocean.

 

Before grabbing his groceries, Edd decided to walk down the stairs to the ocean side. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do then, since he never was out here without a canvas piece to work on. He sat down next to his dingy and leaned up against the side, staring out towards the vastness of the sea.

 

It sparkled a deep, deep blue and green, the gray clouds parting over the sun occasionally to allow a glimmer of sunlight to illuminate the water, before covering it up again. It was mesmerizing.

 

Under some sort of trance, Edd stood up and began to push his small boat towards the rising tides, undoing the rope and pushing off into the water. He paddled the oars slowly until he was a long enough distance from the shore that he could just admire the view.

 

But, even though it was a beautiful sight, for some reason he didn’t want to paint it again. He sighed and reached for an oar, ready to make his way back when he felt something bump hard against his boat and knock him off balance, falling onto his back inside the dingy.

 

“What the…?”

 

He sat up carefully, looking over the side of the boat, curious to see what large fish had hit him.

 

But he couldn’t make out any strange shadows at all… hm. Maybe it had quickly swam away?

 

He turned back around and nearly fell back in surprise again.

 

“Hey,” Tord greeted him from the opposite end of the boat, hanging on to the siding.

 

Edd blinked.

 

Tord rolled his eyes and swished his tail before letting go of the boat and flicking himself back underwater.

 

Alarmed, Edd jolted towards the front where Tord disappeared only to hear a splash and feel rather than hear a large thud rock the back of the boat.

 

“So you’re not painting today?”

 

Tord lounged in the back of the boat, his tail flopping over the side as he stretched. Edd gaped his mouth open and closed, trying to say something before shaking his head.

 

“Hm. Shame. You seem really talented, you know?” Tord grinned, showing off a sharp toothed smile, “For a human, at least.”

 

“So… you’re…” Edd floundered for words.

 

“You’re… real?”

 

Tord stared at him, losing his grin.

 

“Uh… yeah. I saved your life. I would hope I’m real or whatever,” He scoffed, offended.

 

“Oh--uh sorry,” Edd quickly apologized, “I just… thought you were a dream and I just didn’t realize and I uh, I’m sorry?”

 

Tord hummed slightly, before nodding, “Well, I suppose I’m handsome enough to be a dreamlike I guess.”

 

Edd bit his tongue to stop himself from correcting him. He was a mermaid-- merman-- creature thing. That’s what was dreamlike. He didn’t even believe in those types of things.

 

But here he was, living proof, lounging across the back of his dingy, tail illuminating somehow by itself. Gosh, that was such a beautiful red.

 

Tord seemed to notice his interest and smirked, gesturing Edd to come closer with a hand, mumbling something about that he didn’t bite humans.

 

Edd slowly inched closer before reaching a hand out to touch the scaly tail. Tord moved it to press into his hand and he became bolder, tracing some of the luminescent areas with a hand. His other hand stroking the long fin attached to the end. The whole experience was surreal, but Tord seemed to lap up the attention.

 

“Can I paint you?” Exited Edd’s mouth before he knew what he was saying.

 

Tord seemed genuinely surprised by the question and Edd tried to backtrack, embarrassed.

 

“I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to--” Edd waved his hands back and forth, covering his face, finally letting go of Tord’s tail fin.

 

“No, yeah, I’d uh… I’d like that?” Tord reached forward, pulling Edd’s hands from his face.

 

“Oh… okay,” Edd smiled awkwardly before biting his lip and looking away, “I didn’t bring my art supplies with me today though…”

 

“I’ll meet you here tomorrow.”

 

Edd looked back at him, surprised.

 

“You will?”

 

“Sure,” Tord smirked, “After all, I’m not so modest to not want a portrait of me.”

 

Edd let out a soft chuckle.

 

“Okay… “

 

“I’ll meet you at sundown here,” Tord grinned before slipping back into the water, water sloshing into the boat as it tipped back and forth from the sudden movement. Tord peeped his head back over the waves to wink at Edd before swimming off with a strong stroke of his tail.

 

Edd smiled softly. He finally had his motivation back.


End file.
